Almost Too Late
by charrrmed
Summary: Bonnie finally believes Damon loves her after he nearly dies saving her life.


**Summary: Bonnie finally believes Damon loves her after he nearly dies saving her life.**

**A/N: This was written for biology_girl_19 at the Bamon Drabble Party on livejournal.**

**The Prompt: Bonnie finally believes Damon loves her after he nearly dies saving her life. based on Circle-Flyleaf.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters.**

**Almost Too Late  
**

It had briefly occurred to her that his body was too limp when he finally fell. She tried to crush the panic threatening to rise as she drew the circle on her floorboard. She could not go to him just yet. He had kept the demon busy long enough for her to catch her breath and push past her bruises, her cuts, and the pain in order to get up and start the ritual required to vanquish him.

As she drew the last symbol, she felt more than saw the demon preparing to launch a final attack on Damon. She reached out to Caroline's mind with such intensity that the young vampire was disoriented before her own thoughts took over again.

_Save him!_

Bonnie heard her take the blow before Stefan and Tyler stepped in. She grabbed her athame in order to direct her intention and started the spell.

After the demon blew up, charring the walls of her house, Bonnie forgot her bleeding wounds and dragged herself to Damon. When she turned him over, she saw angry black veins in the skin visible through his torn grey shirt. She let out a disturbing cry of despair when she tore the shirt and saw the veins moving up his torso, easily fighting his healing ability. She knew they were headed for his brain where they would quietly kill him. His body grew stiffer in her hands as he opened his eyes and struggled to breathe.

"Why isn't he healing?" Tyler asked.

"Because it's magic," she said as tears welled in her eyes. Her eyes were still trained on Damon's torso. She couldn't bear to look at his eyes. It would do nothing to focus her scrambled concentration.

"Can't you give him your blood, Stefan?" Caroline asked.

"PLEASE STOP TALKING!" Bonnie screamed as she grabbed her head and squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't remember anything. She had never felt such a powerful rush of emotion, but instead of helping her this time, her emotions were paralyzing her powers. She knew healing spells. She could heal him completely, but she couldn't remember. She couldn't even remember the spell to ease his pain. And he was dying. That was all she could think about. She was going to lose him. She was losing him.

"Bonnie," he wheezed.

She heard him trying to breathe through the pain. "Please don't talk," she whispered, her eyes still closed. She opened them and saw the veins again, and all she could think about is how he would look when he was finally dead, still as a statue, quiet forever.

She started to shake, and it was so noticeable that Stefan had to hold her. "Bonnie, you're panicking."

She shook her head in the negative. Stefan tried to turn her head to look at him, but she wouldn't look away from Damon's body, her mouth open, the sound of her forcing air into her lungs filling the room.

"Bonnie please, you have to _concentrate_! He's _dying_!"

Her eyes travelled with the veins that were crawling past his collarbone. "I can't," she cried. "I can't remember. I can't remember!" The tears spilled, and she touched Damon's neck.

"Bonnie," he croaked. "You can do this. How does it go?" He butchered the first lines to the spell.

"Oh my God," Bonnie said as it came back to her. She moved to position his head in her lap and placed her hands on his neck where the fans had reached. She didn't recite the spell that Damon had started. She recited the one she'd tailored specifically for him. It was a mix of English and the Sacred Language. She recited it, her voice mirroring his health, gaining in momentum on each recitation.

/

It was two hours later, and she still had not looked him in the eye. She had healed him and stepped away as Stefan and Caroline had breathed in relief. She had been sapped of all her strength, more emotionally than physically. She had drunk Caroline's blood to heal her wounds without paying attention. Her gaze was far off as she sat huddled on her couch, her knees drawn up to her chest and her hands encircling them. She still trembled from moment to moment.

He had not left. The others had, Caroline asking him if he was sure he didn't want to lie down. He had cleaned the debris in her living room and kitchen while watching her from the corner of his eye. She felt him stand behind the couch when he was done. "I don't understand why you did that," she says her voice heavy. She was unable to get the image of him on the floor out of her mind. Her tears constantly threatened to spill over anew.

"Well that's a lie," he said from behind her.

"You could've _died_," she said, an edge to her voice as her hands balled into fists.

"Yeah," he said. It sounded like he wanted to ask her what the problem was. "That was going to be you. He _had_ you."

She heard the malice in his voice. "And I couldn't remember the spell. You were dying…and I couldn't do anything. I was completely useless when it mattered most," she whispered and twin drops rolled down her cheeks.

The couch dipped when he sat down next to her. He pulled her against his naked chest, having dispensed of the useless shirt. She was a mass of tension. "You surprised me with that spell. I was a little out of it, but I don't think it's the one I remembered."

"I made one for everyone," she said as she lay stiffly against him.

"You can relax now, Bonnie," he said softly as he touched the arms still wrapped like a vice around her legs.

She shook her head 'no.' He stroke her cheek, and then placed a lingering kiss on her forehead. She closed her eyes. They have shared more intimate kisses, but she had put a stop to it when he started trying to get her to believe that he had feelings for her. When he had told her he loved her, she had waited for the punch line before going off on him for having, in her mind, so little respect for her. That had not stopped him from repeating it more than once in the weeks following, even when she would reject him in ways that clearly hurt his feelings. She would feel like such a jerk afterwards, but she would convince herself that it was necessary to get him to snap him out of it and go look for another rebound.

No matter how hard she would try not to, she would wonder if he meant it. Then she would ask herself why she cared, and she would forget the whole thing.

Now as she sat with his arms wrapped around her, her mind flashed to the paling body on the ground. She imagined what life would be like if she never had to see him again, if she never had to hear his voice again, if she never had to see that smug smirk that she found so damn sexy at times. She tried to imagine what her life would be like if she never had to see or hear those things, and she could _not_ change her mind about it, and she started to cry in earnest. She finally unclenched her hands to cling to his neck, and Damon easily moved her onto his lap as great sobs devastated her body. She cried into the crook of his neck, and he held her as tightly as she held him.

"I'm sorry," she heaved. "I'm so sorry," she repeated

Despite the breakdown she was experiencing, Damon smiled because he had a strong feeling that it was coming.

She cried until she started to hiccup. "I'm so sorry," she wept, clutching his hair. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

Damon leaned her back in his arms, and she finally looked into his eyes through her watery green ones. He was a blur in her vision, but he was solid as she caressed his cheek. "I don't know what I was thinking," she said distractedly. She traced the curve of his jaw, and her eyes followed her movement. She wiped her eyes and sniffed. She ran her hand through his hair again, not looking away from those crystal blue eyes that shifted whenever he was pissed at her or wanted to intimidate her.

"I love you," she said, lost in them.

The only movement that occurred on Damon's serious face was that he swallowed at her admission.

"I love you so much," she confessed. "And you love me," she said as if in a dream state. "The notion was so impossible to me," she said with a shake of her head. "But it's true." She shifted in his lap in order to straddle him. She held his face between her hands, because she really needed him to believe what she was saying. "I love you," she said, searching his eyes. "And…I know you love me too."

Damon's breathing was shallow as he listened to the words he was beginning to accept he would never hear. He had begun to accept that she truly did not have it in her to love him.

"I'm so sorry I made you wait," she said as her eyes watered again. "I'm so sorry I was in denial. It almost got you killed."

Damon worked his throat, but when he managed to speak his voice still sounded ruff and full of emotion, "Well, you always were difficult."

Bonnie shook her head at the fact that he was willing to joke about it. Her hands got lost in his dark hair when she kissed him. She kissed him with all she was filling, and he kissed her with all he felt. She was the one who asked for permission to enter his mouth, and he gladly gave it to her. He scooted forward on the couch so that she could fully straddle him, all the while never breaking the kiss. Bonnie never let go. The kiss became frenzied and sloppy as she touched all of the bare skin that she could. Damon shifted once more to lay her on the couch.

Bonnie hugged him with her whole body. She needed to breathe, but she didn't want to stop kissing him. She never wanted to stop touching him. She did break away, but she kissed his cheek and neck as she tried to catch her breath.

Her chest expanded to its capacity as she lay on the couch and looked at him. He was looking at her hungrily, he was alive, he was in love with her, and she was in love with him too.


End file.
